The Youth Revolution Coalition is being criticised for not playing a more prominent role in Egypt's burgeoning problems, reports Mohamed Abdel-Baky For more than three months, the Youth Revolution Coalition (YRC) has been the unofficial voice of the majority of Egyptian youth that led the 25 January Revolution that forced Hosni Mubarak to step down. However, the past few weeks have loosened the once unified YRC, especially the sectarian violence that followed the torching of the Virgin Mary Church in Imbaba, northern Cairo. Some observers and activists say the YRC's role in the Imbaba crisis was confined to issuing a statement of solidarity and the holding of a rally in Imbaba to call for national unity between Muslims and Copts. "Instead of being on the ground helping the community in Imbaba to calm the situation down, they issued a statement condemning the way the police and the military handled the situation," an activist close to the YRC said. Early this month, 15 people were killed and more than 240 injured in sectarian clashes that erupted after an attempt was made by Muslims to enter another church in Imbaba, Mar Mina, in search of a Christian woman who converted to Islam and was believed to be held captive there. Following the Imbaba crisis the YRC came under fire from the Egyptian media for being absent from the scene in Imbaba and leaving only the government and the military to pick up the pieces. The YRC responded by pointing to other players in Egypt, including political parties and other youth movements that should be engaged in such a debate. "We announced many times that we are not the official spokesperson of the revolution; we represent only ourselves and some parts of the Egyptian society. All other youth movements have the right to be engaged and play a positive role towards building a democratic state," YRC said in a statement. The statement added that the mission of the coalition was to save the revolution and achieve all its goals and that the YRC "could do this only by cooperating and coordinating with national political forces." YRC is one of seven unions formed during the revolution that began on 25 January which ousted Mubarak. It includes 6 April, Youth for Freedom and Justice, the Al-Baradei Campaign, the Muslim Brotherhood Youth Group, the Democratic Front's youth group and the National Association for Change. Shortly after Mubarak stepped down several groups in cities across Egypt offered to represent the YRC and establish local offices. However, the coalition denied having any connection to these offices saying it does not represent the YRC, which decided to have no local offices in Egypt. "We are an executive committee that coordinates the work of youth movements. The YRC is not supposed to have offices or conduct activities. This is the job of the youth movements who are members of the coalition. The YRC acts only as a hub," said Nasser Abdel-Hamid, a member of the executive committee of YRC. Having no offices in cities other than Cairo was the main reason for the gap created between the coalition and Egyptian youth, according to a member of the coalition. He said the YRC was planning to improve its performance in the coming weeks by launching campaigns to raise the awareness of political participation in many villages across Egypt. In April, Qena governorate found itself in the throes of a political deadlock that paralysed Upper Egypt when thousands of protesters blocked railway tracks and highways to demand the resignation of the newly appointed governor Emad Shehata Mikhail. "We are currently working with a group of political parties to have one list of candidates in the parliament elections but this step was postponed many times because of the Imbaba and Qena crises," said Abdel-Rahman Samir, a senior member in YRC. Parliamentary elections are scheduled for September. The Qena crisis divided the YRC after the coalition executive office in Cairo announced its solidarity with the demands that Mikhail be changed while the YRC office in Qena demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Essam Sharaf. YRC Cairo said the statement did not represent the coalition but only the Qena group. Such disagreements between YRC in Cairo and other groups that use the same name in other governorates was repeated in Alexandria, Kafr Al-Sheikh and Minya governorates. That led to a lack of credibility among its grassroots supporters. The performance of the YRC was also affected after 6 April youth announced their withdrawal from the coalition. "For the last two months the YRC has been out of the political game and distanced itself from the public. There is a big gap now between the Egyptian people and YRC and now they are supporting the divisions within the 6 April movement," said 6 April in a statement last month. The statement added that the coalition "does nothing but issue statements to comment on the current events as there is no clear vision of its role in the current stage of the Egyptian revolution. The coalition is reactive, not proactive. "We are the only movement working on the ground among the grassroots population in the villages. Our mission is not to talk on TV or issue statements. There is a lot to do before the parliamentary elections," said Mohamed Adel, a senior 6 April member. Adel added that 6 April's main goal was to get 10 seats in the parliamentary elections "to act as their voice". Early in March the YRC almost collapsed after Youth of the Muslim Brotherhood announced its support of constitutional amendments in a referendum while the YRC campaigned against it.
